VC parents vexed by kindergarten plan

MONTGOMERY — The Valley Central School District's plan for delivering a kindergarten program on half the funding continued to draw fire from parents Wednesday night.

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By MICHAEL RANDALL

recordonline.com

By MICHAEL RANDALL

Posted Jul. 25, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By MICHAEL RANDALL
Posted Jul. 25, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

MONTGOMERY — The Valley Central School District's plan for delivering a kindergarten program on half the funding continued to draw fire from parents Wednesday night.

Budget cutbacks left the district with only about half the money it would need to continue its full-day kindergarten program.

But rather than a half-day program with kids going to school every day — as many parents would prefer — the district is offering a program of alternate days.

Some kids will go to school all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the others on Wednesdays and Fridays. On Mondays, they'll alternate.

Superintendent of Schools Richard Hooley said it's a schedule made necessary by finances.

"There is no one in the Valley Central School District who thinks this is a good plan," Hooley told an auditorium of about 50 parents and some children at Berea Elementary School.

"It's a bogus plan," Bishara Sarras told Hooley a short time later.

Sarras' criticism extended beyond the plan's possible effect on the students. He said if his child goes to full-day kindergarten every day, his wife could get a job.

"You're restricting my income," he said.

Michelle Vidal, a mother of three, asked this question about students going to school on fewer days: "Don't you think we are setting our kids up for failure?"

But Hooley said the district is "not cutting the curriculum."

Jill Bresnick, a parent who teaches first grade in a Westchester County school district, said she began to lose "a bit of faith in the district" after the school board restored varsity sports to the 2013-14 budget. Alluding to fundraising drives under way to save other extracurricular activities, she asked: "Why aren't we raising money for full-time kindergarten?"

Other parents say the schedule will make it more difficult to schedule day care for their children when they are not in school.

To one parent who raised that point, Hooley conceded, "I cannot solve that problem for you ... I understand this is frustrating. I'm as unhappy as anybody else."